While much focus this fall has been on tax reform proposals and debates, it’s possible some may have missed the September 26, 2017 TIGTA[1] report proposing recommendations to tighten the estate and gift tax return examination process. The report described a very manual process for the classification, prioritization and assignment of estate and gift tax returns with a variety of problems, such as, but not limited to:

Minimal guidance from the Internal Revenue Manual (IRM) on the process, which translates into a lack of formal written procedures,

A subjective prioritization of returns by a “national gatekeeper,”

Illegible and incomplete classification sheets,

Missing documents from case files, and

Timeframes not followed in the examination process.

These issues raised the question of whether or not the most productive cases were being assigned for examination. Some of the issues also bring into question whether a taxpayer’s rights are at risk of being violated. For the most part, the IRS agreed with all recommendations for improvement, including an update to the IRM for more guidance on how returns are classified, prioritized and assigned for examination.

In addition to the recommendations made, the report shared some insightful statistical information about estate and gift tax examinations.